raison d'être

American  

[rey-zohn de-truh, re-zawn de-tr^uh] / ˈreɪ zoʊn ˈdɛ trə, rɛ zɔ̃ ˈdɛ trə /

noun

raisons d'être plural

1. reason or justification for being or existence.

   Art is the artist's raison d'être.

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raison d'être British  

/ rɛzɔ̃ dɛtrə /

noun

1. reason or justification for existence

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raison d'être Cultural  

1. A basic, essential purpose; a reason to exist: “Professor Naylor argues that in the nuclear age, infantry forces have lost their raison d'être.” From French, meaning “reason for being.”

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• raisons d'être
  plural

Etymology

Origin of raison d'être

Borrowed into English from French around 1865–70

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

raison d'être

But she’s also the kind of television personality who is comfortable before the camera without being in love with it, or giving the impression that media success is her raison d’être.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

Privacy A VPN’s raison d’être: encrypting your traffic to mask your internet browsing from your ISP and prevent it from throttling your connection.

From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2026

Fundamentally, the format's raison d'être is now under question.

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2025

“His whole raison d’être is to enhance the industry that’s given him so much and bring people in, bring them back to theaters. And I just applaud that on my feet.”

From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2025

His raison d’être in the club is the same as in the city; it is to provide luxuries or amusements for the society, which the society could not generally obtain for itself.

From Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius by Dill, Samuel